Republicans embarked Tuesday on what looked like an uphill task to overcome factional conflict and unite around a new leader, after failing for weeks to replace the deposed speaker of the US House of Representatives.
Congress has been paralyzed and unable to address the crises in Ukraine and Israel, as well as the looming threat of a government shutdown, after the historic dismissal of Kevin McCarthy in a right wing rebellion on October 3.
Nine candidates, including House number three and majority whip Tom Emmer, pitched colleagues Monday, focusing on boiler-plate conservative priorities such as tightening immigration controls and curbing spending.
The party gathered behind closed doors again Tuesday morning as they began choosing a new nominee from the men-only field, which had been whittled down to seven hopefuls as two dropped out ahead of the voting.
“Whether we like it or not, the world looks to America for leadership,” said California Republican Mike Garcia, calling on lawmakers to “get back to work.”
“Today’s global disorder is a product of leaders and legislators in Washington prioritizing political agendas over a greater, more fundamental American agenda.”
Whoever emerges will be the party’s Plan D, after lawmakers sidelined McCarthy’s expected replacement and humiliated the third choice nominee by failing to back him on the House floor.
The successful candidate is guaranteed to be the least experienced speaker in more than a century, as none of the hopefuls has chaired a committee or held a senior leadership role for more than a few months.
And he will almost immediately preside over a government shutdown that could threaten his job unless he can cut a 2024 budget deal favorable to his party with much more seasoned negotiators, from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to President Joe Biden.
He will also be expected to lead his deeply fractured conference through upcoming fights over funding for Ukraine and Israel in their conflicts with Russia and Hamas.
Each candidate has pledged to back the eventual nominee, but there has been little evidence that any of them has sufficient backing to win 217 votes — the majority on the House floor — and seize the gavel.
The nominee can afford to lose just four Republicans and still claim the speakership.
“Getting 217 is obviously going to be very difficult and is the sort of Rubik’s Cube of the answer to all of this,” Ohio’s Mike Turner, who chairs the intelligence committee told CNN on Sunday.
Several rank-and-file Republicans could decide to work with Democrats on empowering stand-in speaker Patrick McHenry with the full power of the office on a short-term basis.
A candidate is deemed to have won when he gets the majority of votes cast, while the worst performing candidate is eliminated after each round.
Emmer is deemed the most acceptable of the runners to Democrats, some of whom have said privately that they’d be prepared to sit out the vote to help him across the line, according to congressional media outlet Punchbowl News.
They would almost certainly demand in return that Emmer commit to the spending levels agreed between House Republicans and Biden in the summer, plus a combined bill providing aid for Ukraine and Israel.
Emmer has been a reliable supporter of Donald Trump, but is considered insufficiently loyal by die-hard Trumpists angry that he did not vote to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump himself has not come out against Emmer but his close ally, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, has launched a “stop Emmer” drive.
